Prime Minister
Dr Manmohan Singh has called for increased efforts by the government and
financial regulators to channelize domestic savings into financial assets.
"The imperative of growth requires an increasing proportion of savings
getting channelized into financial assets, to facilitate their deployment in
the most productive uses" he said while speaking at the Silver Jubilee
celebration of Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI in Mumbai today.

Dr Singh said,
the Gross Domestic Savings as a percentage of GDP has decreased from 36.8 per
cent in 2007-08 to 30.8 per cent in 2011-12."It is a matter of concern
that financial savings as percentage of GDP have declined recently. In times of
uncertainty, doubts often arise regarding the likely return on financial assets
and individuals prefer to hold physical assets like gold and housing"
observed PM.He said for mobilising
savings into productive uses, retail investors should have incentive to invest
in financial assets.

Dr Manmohan
Singh said, moderation of inflation will help, while introduction of inflation
indexed bonds is an important effort in this direction. He said, a number of
steps have been taken to attract retail investors like introduction of Rajiv
Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme, incentives for Mutual Funds to reach beyond top
15 cities, in order to deepen and widen financial system .

A recent study
has shown that majority of Indian households do not participate in financial
markets. The geographic spread too is very skewed with the Western Region
accounting for 55 per cent of all investors.

Prime Minister
Singh complimented SEBI for providing a well regulated capital market, and said
it has successfully modernized our capital markets and brought international
best practices to India.

Dr Sing said
SEBI can also make a vital contribution to the revival of the economy by taking
a lead role in establishment of Infrastructure Debt Funds by offering
supportive regulatory environment. He said

India is in need of infrastructure funding of about 1 trillion US dollars
in the 12th plan period.

Prime Minister
also called for development of a strong corporate debt market in the country.
He said, "to some extent reduction in fiscal deficit, is a pre-requisite
for this development as soveriegn debt crowds out private debt. Efforts are
being made to reduce fiscal deficit and as we succeed, we can expect the
corporate debt market to expand"

Dr Singh
reiterated that protection of investors interest remains central to the mandate
of SEBI. "Our Government remains committed to doing everything that is
need to strengthen SEBI, so that it can deliver even more effective
enforcement.

Speaking on the
occasion, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that due to the efforts of SEBI
India today has one of the best regulated capital markets in the country. He
said regulatory and surveillance systems have kept pace with market
developments and the investor confidence is high.He called upon SEBI to be a fearless
regulator, and not to bend before anyone.

On this
occasion, a commemorative postage stamp on 25 years journey of SEBI was
released by India Postin the presence
of Union Minister for Communication and IT,Kapil Sibal.

A book on the
history of Indian securities market , titled ‘Banyan Tree to e-Trading’was also released.

SEBI, was
established by the Government of India in 1988 as a market regulator to
safeguard the interests of investors.It
was vested with statutory powers after the SEBI Act was passed in Parliament in
1992, when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister.Today, it is armed with quasi-executive,
quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers, and has met with adequate success
in pushing systematic reforms.Introduction of Demat, which did away with physical certificates prone
to postal delays, theft and forgery is among the key achievement of SEBI. It
has also simplified and brought down the settlement cycle and is credited with
fostering the mutual fund industry with initiatives like simpler KYC (Know Your
Customer) norms and widening the distribution network in rural India by roping
in postal agents. SEBI’s presence has also reassured the Foreign Institutional
Investors (FIIs), who have been active in Indian stock markets.

On the momentous
occasion of SEBI's silver jubilee, the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore,
who is also the Minister of Finance,T
Shanmugaratnam was the Guest of Honour. Governor of Maharashtra,
K Sanakaranarayanan, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Union Ministers Namo
Narain Meena and Milind Deora were among the dignitaries present.